MSS. were given to Bolingbroke.

When the University of Oxford proposed to confer an honorary degree upon
Pope, he declined to receive the compliment, because the proposal to
confer a smaller honour upon Warburton had been at the same time thrown
out by the University. In fact, Pope looked up to Warburton with a
reverence almost equal to that which he felt for Bolingbroke. If such
admiration for such an idol was rather humiliating, we must remember
that Pope was unable to detect the charlatan in the pretentious but
really vigorous writer; and we may perhaps admit that there is something
pathetic in Pope's constant eagerness to be supported by some sturdier
arm. We find the same tendency throughout his life. The weak and
morbidly sensitive nature may be forgiven if its dependence leads to
excessive veneration.

Warburton derived advantages from the connexion, the prospect of which,
we may hope, was not the motive of his first advocacy. To be recognized
by the most eminent man of letters of the day was to receive a kind of
certificate of excellence, valuable to a man who had not the regular
university hall-mark. More definite results followed. Pope introduced
Warburton to Allen, and to Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield. Through
Murray he was appointed preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and from Allen he
derived greater benefits--the hand of his niece and heiress, and an
introduction to Pitt, which gained for him the bishopric of Gloucester.

Pope's allegiance to Bolingbroke was not weakened by this new alliance.
He sought to bring the two together, when Bolingbroke again visited
England in 1743. The only result was an angry explosion, as, indeed,
might have been foreseen; for Bolingbroke was not likely to be
well-disposed to the clever parson whose dexterous sleight-of-hand had
transferred Pope to the orthodox camp; nor was it natural that
Warburton, the most combative and insulting of controversialists, should
talk on friendly terms to one of his natural antagonists--an antagonist,
moreover, who was not likely to have bishoprics in his gift. The
quarrel, as we shall see, broke out fiercely over Pope's grave.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] "No letter with an envelope could give him more delight," says
Swift.

[21] It would be out of place to discuss this in detail; but I may say
that Pope's crude theory of the state of nature, his psychology as to
reason and instinct, and self-love, and his doctrine of the scale of
beings, all seem